Table Of ContentTHE SCIENTIFIC WORLD OF COPERNICUS
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THE  SCIENTIFIC  WORLD 
OF  COPERNICUS 
On the Occasion of the 500th Anniversary of his Birth 
1473-1973 
Edited by 
BARBARA BIENKOWSKA 
University of Warsaw, Poland 
Foreword by 
ZDENEK KOPAL 
Victoria University of Manchester 
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
DORDRECHT-HOLLAND / BOSTON-U .S.A.
Published by arrangement with Agencja Autorska, Warszawa 
Translated from the Polish by Christina Cenkalska 
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-85712 
ISBN-I3: 978-94-010-2618-5  e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-2616-1 
001: 10.1007/978-94-010-2616-1 
Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, 
P.O. Box 17, Dordrecht, Holland 
Sold and distributed in the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico 
by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Inc. 
306 Dartmouth Street, Boston, 
Mass. 02116, U.S.A. 
All Rights Reserved 
Copyright © 1973 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, 
or any other means, without written permission from the publisher
T ABLE OF CONTENTS 
ZDENEK KOPAL / Foreword  VII 
ST ANISLA W HERBST / The Country and the World of Copernicus  1 
JERZY DOBRZYCKI / Nicolaus Copernicus - His Life and Work  13 
ALEKSANDER BIRKENMAJER I Astronomer of the Age of Transition  38 
WLODZIMIERZ ZONN / Nicolaus Copernicus - Founder of the New 
Astronomy  47 
LEOPOLD INFELD / From Copernicus to Einstein  66 
WALDEMAR VOISE / The Great Renaissance Scholar  84 
BOGDAN SUCHODOLSKI / The Impact of Copernicus on the Development 
of the Natural and the Human Sciences  95 
EDW ARD LIPINSKI/Copernicus as Economist  107 
BARBARA BIENKOWSKA / The Heliocentric Controversy in European Culture  119 
JERZY DOBRZYCKI / Selected Copernican Bibliography  133 
BARBARA BIENKOWSKA I Name and Geographical Index  136 
ABOUT THE AUTHORS  143
FOREWORD 
On February 19, 1973, five centuries have elapsed since the birth of Nicolaus Coperni 
cus - the greatest astronomer of the Renaissance period - who rediscovered for us the 
heliocentric model of the solar system, and documented it by his life's work in such a 
manner as to make its concept a permanent property of mankind. 
The life of Copernicus, extending from 19 February 1473 to his death on 24 May 
1543, was not too rich in adventures or biographical facts.  Born in Toruti from a 
family of Polish burghers, he received his first university training in Cracow between 
1491-1494. From Cracow he proceeded to Italy to spend the years between 1496-1503 
at the Universities of Bologna, Padua and Ferrara - with occasional visits to Rome -
in preparation for an ecclesiastical career. When Bishop Watzenrode - his patron and 
maternal uncle - could no longer extend his leave, Copernicus returned to Poland 
in 1503 to enter the service of the church establishment, which soon led to a canonry 
at the Frombork (Frauenburg) Cathedral in Warmia. And there - in the northern 
mists not far from the Baltic shores - in a land so different in climate from the sunny 
Italy of his youth - he was destined to spend the rest of his life. 
Copernicus' interest in astronomy was probably awakened already at Cracow by 
his first outstanding teacher, Wojciech of Brudzewo; though it was not till during his 
Italian years that he conceived the design which was to blossom out into the finest 
flower which astronomy contributed to the human culture at the time of the Renais 
sance. Relatively little is known of Copernicus' life during his Italian years; and after 
five centuries his trail is difficult to follow from extant records with any assurance. 
From the early years of his life Copernicus had an inclination to anonymity which 
grew in him with the years. Only now and then - when contemporary events happened 
to place him temporarily in a position of prominence - do we recognize his features 
more clearly; but soon thereafter he lapses back into the shadowy existence which 
was  his  second nature.  His location,  at Frombork, in  "the most remote corner 
of the  Earth" - as Copernicus described it - precluded more intimate personal 
contact  with many other scholars of his time; and his ecclesiastical rank (though 
Copernicus was a canon - and between 1523-1525 chancellor of the Frauenburg 
chapter - he was never ordained priest) deprived him of a family which he could call 
his own. 
There is, however, no doubt that during his 12 years of University life - both in 
Poland and abroad - he learned in his youth all that ancient sources had to offer -
and these were still the principal sources of human knowledge at that time. It is, there 
fore, more than probable that, on his return to Poland from Italy in 1503, he brought 
back with him at least the germ of the idea whose execution was to occupy him for the 
rest of his life, and to immortalize his name in the annals of our science: namely, a
VIII  ZDENEK KOPAL 
synthesis of the heliocentric model of the solar system of Aristarchos with the geo 
metrical apparatus of Ptolemaic astronomy. 
The idea of the heliocentric model of the solar system was not born at the time of 
the Renaissance, but goes back much further in the cultural history of mankind. In 
fact we owe it - like so much else - to the Greeks of the Hellenistic times - times 
when internal disunity lost them their political power, but when they became the 
masters of the intellectual world by the sheer weight of their genius. As far as we 
know, the idea that the Sun - rather than the Earth - is at the centre of our planetary 
system, and that the Earth revolves around it, was propounded first by Aristarchos 
of Samos - an outstanding philosopher of the third century B. C. - whom astronomers 
can rightfully adopt as one of their early patron-saints. Of his life much less is known 
to us than we know about Copernicus. His date or place of birth is unknown - prob 
ably around 310 B.C. - the only fixed date of his lifetime being the year 281 B.C., 
when he observed (according to Hipparchos) the time of the summer solstice. We 
know that he was berated for the boldness of his views by the stoic philosopher 
Kleanthes some time after 264 B.C. We have, however, no idea where Aristarchos 
lived - whether in Athens or Alexandria - nor where he died; but most part of his 
life was probably spent in the first half of the 3rd century B.C. 
What is even worse - Aristarchos' views on the structure of the solar systems may 
have remained unwritten or what he wrote was lost, so that we know about it only 
from the references to his views made by his contemporaries. The most famous among 
these is  the testimony recorded by the great mathematician Archimedes (287-212 
B.C.) in his Psammites (Sand Reckoner) - in words which cannot be read without 
emotion even after the lapse of 22 centuries: 
You (King Gelon II, tyrant of Syracuse, who died before 216 B.C.) are aware that universe (1(00'110C;;) 
is the name given by most astronomers to the sphere whose centre is the centre of the Earth, and 
whose radius is equal to the distance between the centre of the Sun and the centre of the Earth. This 
is the common account as you have heard from astronomers. But Aristarchos of Samos brought out 
a book consisting of some hypotheses wherein it appears, as a consequence of assumptions made, that 
the (real) universe is many times greater than the one just mentioned. His hypotheses are that fixed 
stars and the Sun remain unmoved, that the Earth revolves about the Sun in the circumference of a 
circle, the Sun lying in the middle of the orbit, and that the sphere of the fixed stars, situated about 
the same centre as the Sun, is so great that the circle in which he supposes the Earth to revolve bears 
such a proportion to the distance of the fixed stars as the centre of the sphere bears to its surface .... 
To express the meaning of this passage in plainer words, Aristarchos attempted to 
explain the observed astronomical phenomena by postulating the daily rotation of the 
Earth about its own axis, as well as the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun. 
A hypothesis of the terrestrial daily rotation was, to be sure, advanced previously by 
Heracleides; but in postulating the second (annual) motion Aristarchos does not seem 
to have had any predecessors. Moreover, the existence of such motion would explain 
in one stroke all retrograde loops exhibited by the outer planets (Mars, Jupiter and 
Saturn) as a reflex of our own yearly motion around the Sun. 
This being said, the reader may ask why the heliocentric planetary system was not 
adopted readily in antiquity, and had to wait another 17 centuries for  Copernicus.
FOREWORD  IX 
The reason is the fact that the simple model envisaged by Aristarchos failed to repre 
sent the  observations ("save the phenomena", as the Greeks were wont to say), 
within the limits of errors of even naked-eye observations; and this could not have 
been otherwise because of another shortcoming which took many centuries to shake 
off: namely, the pre-conception that the motions of all celestial bodies must necessarily 
be circular and uniform. 
We do not know who planted this particular false seed in the human mind - prob 
ably the Pythagoreans, misled by esthetic rather than physical reasons. But its con 
sequences for the progress of science were singularly disastrous. For we know, of 
course, and have known since the time of Kepler, that planetary motions in the sky 
are neither uniform nor circular; and that any attempt to  represent the  apparent 
motions of the planets in the sky by pure circles would fail to establish a real agree 
ment between theory and observation regardless of the position of the Sun in the 
system. This is especially true of our nearest celestial neighbour Mars, which happens 
to follow a markedly eccentric orbit (e=O.093) - and for which, as a result, the differ 
ences  between the observations and any system - be it geocentric or heliocentric -
based on the assumption of uniform circular motion would amount to whole degrees. 
Discrepancies  of this order of magnitude must have troubled Aristarchos, and 
been intolerable to Hipparchos living a century later. Therefore, the  heliocentric 
model of the solar system, introduced by Aristarchos in the 3rd century B.C., failed 
no doubt to gain acceptance because a mere replacement of the Earth by the Sun at 
its centre - simplify as it did some geometrical aspects of the problem - did nothing 
to remove the principal obstacle to the practical usefulness of such models: and this 
was the mistaken concept that all celestial motions must be circular and uniform. 
There is no indication known to us that Aristarchos would have contemplated any 
departure from the Pythagorean tradition in this respect; nor did anyone else until 
the time of Kepler. 
In the meantime, the only way which suggested itself to the ancient astronomers 
for 'saving the phenomena' and reconciling the observed paths of the planets on the 
celestial sphere with the Pythagorean preconceptions, was to superpose more than 
one uniform circular motion on top of another. The commencement of this geometrical 
merry-go-round can be traced to the homothetic spheres of Eudoxos, followed by the 
geometrical theory of epicycles laid down by Apollonios in the second half of the 3rd 
century B.C., which was developed further by Ptolemy into a pragmatic geometrical 
system which survived in astronomy - with many  vicissitudes - until  the time  of 
Copernicus. 
Was Copernicus aware of the fact that the heliocentric system of the planetary 
family was already proposed in antiquity by Aristarchos? During his Italian years 
Copernicus no doubt learned all that contemporary astronomy had to offer; and 
- if nobody else - Mario Novara  in Padua would have made him aware of the 
various shortcomings of the geocentric system. The 'editio princeps' of Archimedes' 
Psammites, with its crucial testimony, quoted above, appeared in Basle in 1544 - one 
year  after Copernicus died.  However, that Copernicus was  aware  of Aristarchos'
x  ZDENEK KOPAL 
work from manuscript sources is attested by his own hand in the manuscript of his 
book De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium.  The respective  passage  was  eventually 
left out of the printed edition of his work by a stroke of the author's pen; but the 
manuscript containing it has been preserved to this day. 
Copernicus doubtless knew too from his teachers - and, may be, partly from  his 
own observations - that the heliocentric system based upon the Pythagorean pre 
conceptions on the uniformity of motions cannot be made to represent the apparent 
motions of the planets in the sky even within the limits of accuracy of the observa 
tions made with naked eye. This is why, in order to improve agreement, Hipparchos 
and  Ptolemy  felt  impelled  to  introduce  their  complicated  systems  of epicycles. 
Copernicus could offer no more adequate mathematical machinery to the same end; 
but in place of applying it to geocentric orbits of celestial bodies, he set out to graft 
it on to a heliocentric system. Copernicus was the first one to attempt such a synthesis; 
and his stature in the history of science rests on this fact.  Moreover, the  merits 
of such an accomplishment are scarcely diminished by an admission that Copernicus 
did not invent the heliocentric model of the solar system, but revived its ancient 
tradition going back to pre-Ptolemaic days. His main personal contribution was - we 
repeat - to dress up the heliocentric idea of Aristarchos in the garb of the Ptolemaic 
geometry. He could scarcely have done otherwise, for kinematically Copernicus was 
still fully under the spell of the Pythagorean lore; but he was the first to develop such 
a synthesis into a comprehensive system. 
Before we say a few words on the actual accomplishments of the resulting system, 
let us describe first some of its salient features. Thus - perhaps contrary to many popular 
views - the geometrical centre of the Copernican model of the solar system did not 
coincide with the position of the Sun, but rather with the centre of the circular orbit 
of the Earth; for it was only in this way that he could account for the phenomena 
arising (as we now know) from the eccentricity of the terrestrial orbit. Secondly, in 
order to reconcile his geometrical model of the solar system with the astronomical ob 
servations (made mostly by others, to which Copernicus added very few of his own) 
within 10 minutes of arc - this was the goal of Copernicus' efforts - he had to employ 
actually a larger number of epicycles to this end than were used in the geocentric models 
of the same period. The latter, in the hands of George Peurbach (1423-1461) required 
only 40 epicycles to 'save the phenomena' to a comparable accuracy; while the final 
system of Copernicus of 1543 required not less than 48 of them; and by abolishing 
the 'equants' from his theory he had to introduce more 'deferents' in their place. 
Under these circumstances, it is only to be expected that the overall picture of the 
Ptolemaic system of the 16th century was really no more complicated geometrically 
than that of Copernicus. The latter also did not represent any significant advance in 
our knowledge of the true size of the solar system. Whereas for Ptolemy (who lived 
in the 2nd century A.D.), the distance to the Sun was estimated to 610 Earth diameters, 
Copernicus diminished this distance to 571  Earth diameters (the actual value of the 
'astronomical unit' being 11500 Earth diameters). Moreover, while in the geocentric 
model the ratios of planetary distances are essentially arbitrary, the heliocentric model
FOREWORD  Xl 
contains a 'built-in' system for a determination of the relative sizes of planetary orbits 
in terms of that of the Earth (the annual retrograde motion of each  planet being 
merely a reflex of our own motion around the Sun). In this way,  Copernicus con 
structed for the first time the actual model of our solar system; though he still under 
estimated its scale by a factor close to 20. 
It has, however, been traditional in the science of astronomy to measure the value 
of a new planetary theory by the correctness with which such a theory can predict the 
positions of the planets in the sky at future times. The planetary tables constructed by 
Copernicus on the basis of his heliocentric theory (published by Erasmus Reinhold in 
Wittenberg in 1551, eight years after Copernicus' death, under the title of Tabulae 
Prutenicae) did constitute a significant improvement over the preceding Alphonsine 
Tables from the 13th century, based on the geocentric system. For three quarters of a 
century the Copernican tables of planetary motion remained the standard source of 
information - until they were superseded by the Rudolphine Tables of Johannes Kepler 
in 1627; but, by that time, the entire astronomical scenery had undergone a profound 
change, and the work of Copernicus became a part of history. 
Tradition has it that Copernicus received the first copy of his great work De Revolu 
tionibus Orbium Celestium (Niirnberg, 1543) on his deathbed, barely aware of its con 
tents. How was the synthesis of the idea of Aristarchos presented in terms of the 
Ptolemaic geometry received by subsequent generations - in particular, among the 
clergy - men concerned with philosophical implications of the system? Its thesis was 
accepted with lukewarm interest on the part of the educated Catholic clergy, and without 
demur by Pope Paul III to whom Copernicus' book was dedicated. On the other hand, 
the Lutheran church objected strongly from the beginning to its thesis on grounds of 
biblical fundamentalism. Martin Luther himself gave out only a few uncouth growls 
in this connection ("That fool wants to turn the whole art of astronomy upside down") 
in his native vernacular; while Melanchthon proved the Earth to be at rest in elegant 
Latin. The real theological storm - in which both Catholics and Protestants began to 
outbid each other in their denunciations of the heliocentric system - did not break out 
till the first 3rd of the 17th century, in the wake of the work of Galileo Galilei and 
Johannes Kepler. 
It was, in particular, Kepler - that David armed with mathematics rather than 
stones in his sling - who was destined to slay that Goliath of Pythagorean preconcep 
tions, and to liberate the planetary theory from the straightjacket of uniform motion 
in circular trajectories. The dogma of such motions was, however, still held as sacro 
sanct by Copernicus. For listen to what he had to say on this subject in his Commenta 
rio Ius of 1574: 
Our ancestors assumed a large number of celestial spheres for a special reason: to explain the appa 
rent motions of the planets by the principle of regularity. For they thought it altogether absurd that 
a heavenly body should not always move with uniform velocity in a perfect circle .... 
And, as these Pythagorean tenets failed to 'save the phenomena' to the desired accu 
racy, Copernicus went on ...
Description:On February 19, 1973, five centuries have elapsed since the birth of Nicolaus Coperni cus - the greatest astronomer of the Renaissance period - who rediscovered for us the heliocentric model of the solar system, and documented it by his life's work in such a manner as to make its concept a permane